Raghavendra Kale
General Manager, Channel Sales Head Vertiv India
Building India’s channel ecosystem for AI data centre power and cooling solutions, the Vertiv Partner Program, a leadership programme for partner talent, a growing AI-ready portfolio and Vertiv™ 360AI are changing what it means to be a Vertiv partner in India.
What idea anchors Vertiv’s approach to India’s channel partners?
The partner’s business comes first. A partner walks into a customer meeting, and the customer’s requirement decides the conversation. Vertiv’s role is to let that partner answer it from an end-to-end portfolio of power, cooling and IT infrastructure solutions and services. Vertiv™ 360AI brings that portfolio together for AI, with power, cooling and service solutions built for the demands of AI workloads The Vertiv Partner Program gives that idea its structure. It brings deal registration, rewards, training, sales support and marketing resources into one place. The portfolio is backed by manufacturing in India, with facilities in Ambernath and Pune, including a Chakan plant for thermal management products. Vertiv India has also made channel growth a leadership priority, with a dedicated channel leader tasked with widening the partner ecosystem and building a scalable partner engine for strategic accounts.
Partners are moving from product resale towards solutions and services. How is Vertiv supporting that shift?
Vertiv approaches it through knowledge, leadership and tools. Vertiv Learning offers online sales and technical training and keeps certifications tracked in one place, and selectors and configurators help partner teams scope solutions. Through the Vertiv Partner Program, partners gain access to enablement resources, incentives and joint go-to-market strategies designed to help them bring Vertiv’s full portfolio to market The newest addition is YUVA, Young Upcoming Visionary Achievers, a leadership programme for the next generation of partner leaders. Participants take part in masterclasses, business and financial strategy sessions and customer partnership frameworks, and they walk the production line at Ambernath. Each then takes on a business growth project built with a Vertiv mentor. Vertiv India’s partner role is moving from solution delivery towards deeper strategic and consultative support for customers, and YUVA invests in the people who will lead that change.
What does it take to become a trusted infrastructure advisor?
An advisor can speak to the whole infrastructure environment, so four areas of depth matter most. Power architecture comes first, where Vertiv’s infrastructure includes busways and UPS systems with power conversion and dynamic load management. Thermal management follows, including coolant distribution units and free cooling chillers. Monitoring through IT management systems is the third, and lifecycle services complete the set. Vertiv supports partners in building that depth through Vertiv Learning, selectors and configurators, and Vertiv sales representatives who work alongside partner teams to identify and solve customer challenges.
How does the Vertiv Partner Program support partner profitability?
It supports a partner at each stage of a deal. Partners are eligible to receive deal registration discounts, rebates and dedicated training. They can promote their association with Vertiv through ready-to-use campaigns, co-branded collateral and content syndication tools, and Vertiv’s sales representatives work alongside their teams. Program benefits vary by region and partner tier.
India has a layer of its own. The ITSI Partner Warrior Program was designed exclusively for Vertiv’s Indian IT system integrator partners. It rewards sales and portal activity across a broad product range, and participation runs through deal registration on the Vertiv Partner Portal.
Where do partners fit in the AI infrastructure opportunity?
They fit in the design conversation. Vertiv’s Designing Infrastructure for Enterprise AI guide sorts enterprise AI workloads into six archetypes and aligns each with one of four physical infrastructure models, from Edge AI Cluster to High-Density AI Cluster. It includes a four-phase roadmap for planning, deploying and evolving AI infrastructure. Vertiv frames the next phase of enterprise AI around whether organisations have the power, cooling, connectivity and operating environment each workload requires. A partner who can speak to those requirements can help customers work through them.
Vertiv 360AI organizes the portfolio around where AI runs, from inferencing and edge AI to enterprise and data centre AI and prefabricated modular AI data centres, with retrofit designs for existing sites The Indian portfolio is moving in the same direction. Vertiv has delivered a direct-to-chip high-density liquid cooling deployment in India using its secondary fluid network system. It is also working with Server OEMs on liquid- cooled rack solutions for AI data centres, engineered and manufactured in India.
Why do services sit at the centre of the partner model?
Services keep a partner in the customer relationship after the first order. Vertiv Services in India spans preventive maintenance, performance optimization, remote monitoring, project and commissioning services, UPS and battery services, generator and switchgear services, and liquid cooling services. Startup services are performed by factory trained and authorised technicians. Preventive maintenance programmes include 24/7 emergency callout and Vertiv LIFE Services, a remote diagnostic and preventive monitoring service.
A partner who pairs a solution with these services offers the customer one relationship from design through commissioning and across the life of the equipment. That is what a services-led partnership looks like in practice.
What does the next phase of growth look like, and how can a partner get started?
The next phase belongs to partners who combine product knowledge, leadership depth and a service offer that stays with the customer. Vertiv’s investments in the Partner Program, YUVA and Vertiv 360AI, which spans liquid cooling, modular infrastructure and solutions from the edge to the data centre, are all aimed at that profile.
Getting started is simple. Partners register at the Vertiv Partner Programme portal, explore Vertiv Learning and plan priorities with their Vertiv representative. Vertiv invites India’s channel community to build future-ready infrastructure partnerships for the AI era.
“India’s AI infrastructure story is being written today, and our channel partners are the co-authors.”
